Gardenia to invest P700M on expansion

MANILA, Philippines - Gardenia Bakeries Philippines will invest up to P700 million next year to expand the current capacity of its Biñan, Laguna plant.

Gardenia president Simplicio Umali Jr. announced that they are scheduled to increase their current capacity by 2013 that is why they will invest towards the end of next year.

Currently, the capacity of their Biñan plant is 300,000 loaves per day. This will go up by 150,000 once the expansion is in place. The utilization of their manufacturing plant is already at 80 percent to 90 percent that is why Umali said there is really a need to expand.

Umali said they will be adding capacity for their bun-making facility this December. This will allow them to double their 250,000 bun per day capacity. He said their bun facility which produces pan de sal among others will already be fully automated by 2015. This will bring their total capacity to 700,000 buns per day.

He said they would like to bring more mass produced pan de sal in the market. All in all, Umali said that the sales of bread has gone up by 10 percent. This, he said, can be attributed mostly to the introduction of the Pinoy Tasty and the Pinoy Pandesal.

At the same time, Umali said they are trying to hold off any increase in the price of bread. Umali said that the increasing price of inputs like fuel and milk are putting a pressure on their costs.

According to Umali, the increasing oil prices has been an issue to bakers because it affects the production and distribution. Umali said that bakers are considering hiking loaf bread prices by P1 and 10- piece pack pan de sal by P0.50 in December because they could no longer absorb the higher costs.

In spite of this, Umali assured the public that there will be no increase in the price of Pinoy Tasty this holiday season.

Umali said bakers would like to hold off any price increases especially during December but said the price of their inputs have gone up. Aside from high flour prices he said other inputs like milk have gone up.

Umali was part of the Philippine contingent that went to Indonesia to look for cheaper flour. Flour importer Ernesto Chua, the president of Malabon Long Life said that Indonesian flour is cheaper than local flour by as much as P80 per bag. Chua said this already includes the freight cost and the taxes. There is no tariff for imported flour because Indonesia is part of the ASEAN.